The Last Doctor
by Derek Metaltron
Summary: The Last Doctor is about to die and he knows it. But there's still time for one last trip to one very familar place. For the Doctor after all, the end is also the begining... AU, Slight Spoilers for 'An Unearthy Child'.


_OCC: This story was writen on the spur of the moment thanks to a suggestion in the Outpost Gallifrey Forum Fanfiction thread. It might not entirely make sense to those who have not seen the original story of Doctor Who, 'An Unearthy Child'. If you haven't, might I suggest you try to pick it up on DVD, it is a great story and has actually aged reasonably well, plus it comes in the DVD boxset with the very first Dalek story and 'Edge of Desruction', both cracking 1st Doctor adventures. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the last tale of the Doctor._

_23rd November 1963, London_

The Policeman flashed a torchlight about as he came running into the yard. Just moments before he'd heard odd noises coming from this place, shouts followed by something he could only call a grinding shuddering whizzing... _noise_. He'd grown up in the Blitz after all, but he'd never heard anything quite like this. It wasn't the first time he'd been hearing odd noises and the like about here. He often swore to his missis that he heard some humming at times from that junkyard when he past it on the beat, and once or twice he'd spotted a young girl or an old man with the _oddest outfit_ walking down the nearby street.

He flashed the light about a bit more, noting that the battered Police Box he seen on occasion was missing. Odd. He could have sworn it had been there not a hour and a half before. Perhaps the Foreman... heh, a Foreman called Foreman... had moved it. _But at this unearthly hour?_

He shrugged and twirled round, deciding to forget the whole affair... only to be startled at an old man looking at him. No, not at him, almost _through him_... with something of a face of fixed bemusement.

"Heh, I see I've gone. Pity. I would have liked to have wished him goodbye." The old man was said to mutter. Confused the Bobbie flashed the flashlight at the man more clearly. It wasn't the same man as he saw usually, no. He was wearing the same kinds of old fashioned clothes, some bizarre form of scarf, a checked jacket, covered in kind by a brown coat and, to more examination, oddly enough a celery on one side and a cat badge on the other, this absurd costume finished with a purple velvet cloak and a tie with what appeared to have a large question mark upon it. His hair also appeared to be short cut, which seemed odd for his age... maybe in his eighties?

"Er... are you alright sir?" The policeman decided to act cool and not make any kind of brass statement, which was very difficult under the circumstances. "Can I help you with something?"

"Hm? Oh no, not at all." The man's voice was void of any one accent and seemed neither regal or cockney. "I just thought I'd see where it all started. Would have liked to go back... back home and see that hallway where I found her, me and Susan. Ah well. My real home's gone, so I'll settle for my adopted one, hey?" He seemed to not so much talk to the bobby as to himself, but then gave a fixed stare at him which caused the policeman to jump slightly. "Have we met before, young man?"

"Erm... no, I don't think so sir, I think I would have remembered you."

The man's eyes widened and he gave a warm smile. "Oh yes, I think I remember now, it was a very long time ago, but I can recall you walking about round here. Susan was always saying how well mannered and good you were, so I want to thank you personally."

Coughing slightly the policeman decided he had enough of this riddles. "Look sir... _who are you, and why are you here_? This place isn't safe after dark and... well, you're _very_ oddly dressed if I say so sir, and I feel at your age you would be in difficulty."

The old man seemed to snap. "Oh nonsense! I am quite safe. Besides, in the end it'll be too late for them to do anything anyway." He sat on a bench and gave a thoughtful expression. "My ship had just enough power you see. After that dreadful busness with the Da-" He slumped slightly and then carried on. "Well I had the chance to go to one last place. Would have liked to said goodbye to all of them."

The copper decided to play along. "Who would 'them' be sir?"

"Oh, you know, my friends, companions, allies, lovers, counterparts, enemies, rivals... oh and Bob the Venusian who lives in the Cafe At the End of Time. Blast, I _should_ have agreed to that last game of bridge! Oh well... perhaps its better this way, better that they don't see this, me as I am now." He looked directly at the policeman, and he was unerved to see how suddenly much older than eighty this man really looked, like he was thousands of years old.

"So I decided to come here, where it really started. Those meddlesome school teachers. They started the journey really. You probably heard all the shouting, yes?"

Not sure what to say, the Policeman nodded dumbly.

"And you went to check. Good man. Brave heart... erm, whats your name sir?"

"George, sir."

"Brave heart George. Well, I would love to answer all the billions of questions you have, but I'm afraid there isn't time. In three minutes or so, it'll begin. I have been holding it off for a while, but the TARDIS can't hold off any more. Won't be long til I find out what Time Lord Heaven is like, if there _is_ such a place." He frowned as he looked about, flicking out a piece of paper before sticking it back in a large coat pocket. "Hmph, I had a whole speech prepared, to the universe and such, but it seems almost foolish to read it now. Well I think I answer one single question then."

The copper blinked. "Sir?"

"Better be quick. A minute left old chap."

"Sir... just who are you?"

The warmest smile George had never known came from the figure and he straightened up. "I sir, am the Doctor. The Last Doctor, to be exact. I am Ten Thousand years old. I originate from the planet Gallifrey, a star long gone from my heart. I have had a thousand companions on my journey through Space and Time. I have saved this planet some two million times, from when your kind was a primitive microbe to billions of years in your race future. And I am about to say goodbye."

And he bowed.

And straightened.

And smiled.

"Goodbye."

And then he exploded. Huge waves of yellow light emitted from him like the force from an Atomic bomb, and the Policeman in fright backed to a corner, his mind overwhelmed by what he was seeing. And then the most amazing thing happened. Through the energy, the old man rose into the air, and for a second, appeared to be that same old man George had known before. Then another man, recorder in hand with a clown like face, and then a serious white haired figure with the same velvet cloak, and then... Some two hundred bodies, white and black and long and short and old and young came and went, under at last it was him again, the man called the Last Doctor, smiling as if everything was alright.

When he spoke, there was something almost angelic about his voice. _"Don't worry my fellow, this is the end, but the moment's been prepared for...."_

And just like that, George wasn't scared any more.

And then with a final burst of light, the man burst into a vast shower of yellow particles, leaving a man who had thought that yesterday, with the death of that poor American President, was the most amazing day in his life. But this was, this truly was.

And though he never could really tell anyone what he saw, he never forgot the man called the Doctor that he met one night on Barnes Common, just a few minutes after two school teachers followed a young girl into the same junk yard and found a oddly humming blue Police Public Call Box...

* * *


End file.
